we loved the ambiance of the building - old brick and stone building with a winding walkway through the middle of a block, the restaurant broken up into both sides with outdoor seating interspersed, giving it a romantic, gothic yet cozy feel. apparently it is owned by a locally famed chef (tyler something) in partnership with sammy hagar - who i only equate with cabo wabo, i don't even know what band he is from. i'll google it later. the sign says french cuisine, i think they changed their mind post paying for signage, because its actually a true american steakhouse.
because we did this last minute, the only reservation available was for 5:45, early bird special it was. this was actually perfect because i have been feeling cooped up this weekend as we were dogsitting and i was not comfortable leaving both beasts in the house alone and ben worked all weekend. i got out of the house for morning workouts on sat and sun and a walk through town on sun afternoon and that was it. stir crazy.
anyway, ben was home at 5 and we got all diddied up for date night in the burbs and arrived on time to our reservation (this is how i know we needed to get out!). the service was slow moving, but this is what we were craving - a long drawn out meal to enjoy each other. the rolls came in individual small pans with some pesto and plenty of salt, yum. luckily, the waiter raved about the sweet pea soup, so ben was enticed enough to forget about the crab cakes and deviled eggs that he was craving (yuk.) we were leery of the quail egg and ham puree sitting in the bowl before the soup was poured over, but it was amazing.
we ordered our entrees and were just getting comfortable with our neighbors being able to hear everything we could say and vice versa, when a call came for ben. work. ben's co worker was having a baby and running out the door, ben needed to go into work in 1 hour. grr. i grudgingly tempered my annoyance by acknowledging that the birth of his baby max may be more important than our date night. we called over the waiter and requested the check with the meal, and he offered to bring the food in doggy bags. we decided that was entirely too depressing....so we would gorge ourselves quickly. much better.
so now i am blogging and ben just sat down to direct. half of my perfectly prepared filet wrapped in bacon with caramelized onions and a tasty béarnaise sits in the fridge alongside the roasted mushrooms and duck fat hash browns. we decided round 2 of the meal will commence around 10 pm -- european style. so wipe your tears aside my sympathetic family, my life will go on - and we'll even be able to pair it with ice cream sandwiches from the freezer later. not exactly the waiters recommended european style, salad to finish. is salad at the end supposed to make you feel better about the obscene intake of fat throughout the rest of the meal?
this meal was also our 'kick off' to the marathon training that we are embarking on, and it officially starts tomorrow. i have been running short runs for the past 2 weeks to get my body comfortable with the idea that running might be OK after work, in place of the comfortable 10 foot walk to the closet for comfy pants and quickly planting myself on the couch for hgtv or bravo for the night. its been a good change so far, so i only hope the increase in intensity over the coming months will feel good as well. i will say, i was at the grocery at 9 am today grabbing a cart and wondering if my legs would ever stop being just a little sore, all the time. we shall see.
ben and jack are well. my job is going great - i really do like going to work most days (not everyday) and i'm learning. i found myself leisurely reading an industry magazine saturday afternoon. nubbalicious.
sean, bridget and the girls came over yesterday afternoon for some sand castle building and a picnic lunch. those girls are growing up so fast and are the happiest and most articulate little ladies you ever met. friedie has deemed my house the 'plant house'. which i mostly love because i always thought it was weird to keep live plants indoors...things change. i also love the fact that friedie announced that she was grumpy that morning, yet she managed to be all smiles through her 'grumpiness'. i need to get my camera out more often, because i have no photos to post....note to self, will improve.
so there's my little life. i love you all and hope you had a relaxing long weekend.
abby
